


Green Jello

by Nutella_enthusiast



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Background niam, M/M, Nurse Harry, Sick Louis, implied Niall/Liam/Zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 04:38:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5525672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nutella_enthusiast/pseuds/Nutella_enthusiast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Liam’s defense, he’d mostly been joking.</p><p>Louis didn’t see it that way, of course, but he wasn’t sure anyone else would either, had their best friend dared them to jump into the ocean in the middle of December “for the vine,” and they’d ended up in the hospital with a nasty case of pneumonia and a very high chance of being stuck there through Christmas.</p><p>***</p><p>Louis is stuck in the hospital for the holidays. The only spot of hope is his unfairly pretty nurse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green Jello

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teenagedenigma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenagedenigma/gifts).



> Inspired by [this](http://teenagedenigma.tumblr.com/post/134358993609/officialcadbane-ohsebs-ohsebs-ohsebs) post  
> Merry Christmas babe <333

In Liam’s defense, he’d mostly been joking.

Louis didn’t see it that way, of course, but he wasn’t sure anyone else would either, had their best friend dared them to jump into the ocean in the middle of December “for the vine,” and they’d ended up in the hospital with a nasty case of pneumonia and a very high chance of being stuck there through Christmas. It’s not like they’d had anything all that exciting planned for Christmas anyways, since neither Louis, Liam, or Liam’s boyfriend Niall could afford to fly home for the holidays, but Louis had been looking forward to a nice Christmas with his friends, spent eating Chinese takeout and watching movies. He’d even scrounged up enough money to buy them each presents - a pair of ridiculous socks decorated with little golf balls and clubs for Niall, and a pair of new gloves for Liam, since he’d started getting holes in the old ones, but now he’s thinking about just keeping them for himself. Friends that dare you to do things, joking or not, that put you in the hospital, don’t deserve presents, and neither do the friends that laugh when they hear the story. They don’t even deserve the title of friend, really.

Louis had spent two days in bed shivering and chugging mug after mug of tea by the time Liam dragged him to the doctor, who had almost immediately said that he’d need hospital treatment, and would probably have to stay for at least a week. If they hadn’t been in a place of healing, Louis was sure he would have killed Liam. As it was, he just spent five minutes seriously considering it before finally allowing them to check him in.

He’d been laying in his hospital bed for almost an hour, trying not to appear as sick as he felt, which was a bit difficult covered in blankets and surrounded by at least six pillows, when his day started finally looking up.

“Excuse me,” said a voice on the other side of his pillow barricade. “I’ve, uh, got to take your vitals.”

“Fight me,” muttered Louis, burrowing further under his blankets so only his eyes and the top of his head were showing and rolling onto his side, away from the voice.

The man - his nurse, he assumed - laughed quietly, and he could feel the pillows being moved one by one and set at the foot of his bed. “Maybe later, alright? For now, can I at least take your temperature?”

Louis groaned loudly, was cut off by a coughing fit, and finally forced himself to roll onto his back and look up at the nurse. “Fine, just make it-” He stopped, staring up at the man in awe for a moment, because surely, this wasn’t a nurse, this was an angel coming to bring him to heaven. If it weren’t for the blue scrubs covered in little cartoon cats, Louis was sure he’d really died. “Uh- quick. Make it quick. Got plans at two, you know how it is,” he finally managed to rasp out.

The nurse laughed again, his eyes scrunching up and his cheeks dimpling, and if Louis hadn’t already been feeling a little light headed, he was sure that would have done it. “Of course. Blue jello day is always like that.”

Louis frowned. “Oh, is it blue today? Never mind, take your time.”

“Hey, blue’s my favorite!” said the nurse, sitting down beside Louis and wrapping a blood pressure cuff around his arm, still dimpling at him. He was close enough that Louis could read the name tag pinned between two cats, which said “HARRY,” in all caps.

“Disgusting,” muttered Louis. “Just let me know when it’s green jello day.”

Harry sighed. “Well, I supposed you can’t account for taste.” He wrote down a few more numbers and pulled out a thermometer. “Alright, open your mouth.”

“I gotta say, I pictured you saying that under very different circumstances.”

Harry choked and spluttered, his cheeks turning bright red. “Excuse me?”

“While feeding me jello,” said Louis, blinking innocently. “That’s part of your job too, right?”

Harry, still blushing, took the opportunity to shove the thermometer under Louis’ tongue. “Only for the cute patients.”

“I guess I’ll see you at lunch then,” Louis tried to say, but with the thermometer, it came out as “ooh goosh ooll sheeya a’ lonchthen.”

“Keep your mouth closed,” said Harry, clearly trying not to laugh.

***

Louis spent the time after Harry left watching old episodes of Friends, until Niall showed up, nearly two hours later, his hands shoved in his pockets and a sheepish look on his face. “How ya doing?”

Louis frowned and pushed his laptop aside. “Well I’ve got pneumonia, haven’t I?”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” said Niall, shuffling his feet and staring at the floor.

Louis sighed. “It’s not your fault. Speaking of, where’s Liam? Too scared to show his face?”

“Nah,” said Niall, sitting down on the edge of Louis’ bed. “He told me to tell you he’s either getting coffee or got called into work, depending on how mad you seem. He’s out in the hall waiting for me to text him.”

“You’re a terrible boyfriend,” said Liam, walking in with three travel cups in his hands. “Lou. Brought you tea.” He set one of the cups beside Louis’ laptop tentatively.

“Eh, I’ll live,” said Niall, taking a cup from Liam as well. “Maybe I’ll just seduce that hot nurse that was flirting with you.”

Liam laughed. “He was proper fit, wasn’t he?”

“Which hot nurse?” asked Louis. He knew that it was a big hospital, that the odds of his hot nurse being their hot nurse were low, but he couldn’t help but worry. Louis wasn’t even sure that Harry had been flirting with him, and yet the idea of him flirting with anyone else, especially Liam, his nemesis, bothered Louis more than it should have. Sure, Liam was his best friend, and Louis loved him very much, but he was also the reason Louis was in the hospital for the holidays, and had, albeit accidentally, broken the bro code by dating Niall, which Louis was planning on never letting him live down. Louis and Niall had met on tinder and gone on one date months before Liam asked him out, and despite the fact that they’d had no chemistry whatsoever, and that Liam hadn’t even known about it when he’d asked the cute boy in his government class to get a coffee with him, Louis was still convinced it was a clear violation. Surprisingly, Liam hadn’t seen it the same way.

“Uh, dark hair, hazel eyes, stethoscope?” said Liam.

“Cheekbones of an angel, eyelashes of a vogue model,” added Niall cheerfully.

Their descriptions didn’t paint much of a picture, but Louis knew that while Harry’s cheekbones were excellent and his eyelashes lovely, his hair was light brown, and his eyes were green.

“How come?” asked Liam, stopping Louis from getting distracted thinking about exactly what shade of green Harry’s eyes could be described as. Moss, maybe, or possibly jade.

“Well it’s proper boring ‘round here, innit?” said Louis. “Wouldn’t mind some eye candy to brighten up my otherwise dreary existence, would I?” He tried to shoot Liam a glare, but he thought the effect might have been dampened slightly by his flushed cheeks and runny nose. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t told the others about Harry; he didn’t have any specific reason not to, really, and it wasn’t like anything was actually happening between them anyways, but Louis still wasn’t quite ready to share.

“Sorry,” muttered Liam, staring down at his feet, pouting like a kicked puppy.

“Forget it,” said Louis with a sigh. “Just don’t be expecting a Christmas present this year.”

Liam broke into a smile so big that his eyes crinkled up into little crescent shapes, and Louis nearly groaned. He couldn’t stay mad at Liam any more than you could stay mad at a puppy who had chewed up your shoes. Sure, it meant you’d need new shoes, but it’s not like the puppy had meant to do it.

Louis frowned. “Shut up and hand me that tea.”

“I didn’t say anything,” said Liam, but he slid the cup towards Louis anyways.

***

When Harry came in to check on Louis the next day, his headache had gotten better, but his cough had only gotten worse. Every breath physically pained him, and his throat was as sore and raw as if he’d been trying to swallow tacks.

“Hi,” said Harry brightly, pushing a tray of instruments in front of him. His scrubs had little daisies on them today, and he looked so happy and healthy and pretty that Louis hated him a little. “I’m here to take your vitals again.”

“Fight me,” rasped Louis, pulling his blankets up to his chin. That alone triggered another bout of coughing, and Louis doubled over, pulling his knees up to his chest as they wracked through him. Harry sat down beside him wordlessly, rubbing slow circles on his back until they finally subsided.

“Nah,” said Harry, his hand lingering on Louis’ back. “You’d definitely win.”

Louis looked up at Harry in disbelief through watering, no doubt bloodshot eyes.

“Really!” said Harry, holding up his hands defensively. “I’m about 0% muscle mass. Sick or no, you could definitely take me.”

Louis snorted. “Been spending a lot of time looking at my muscles?”

Harry stood and returned to his cart, cheeks tinged with pink. “I’ve got to take your blood pressure.”

Louis smirked and held out his arm.

***

The third day, Louis awoke feeling sure that it would be his last day on earth. His muscles ached, his throat was still sore and raw, and his whole body was trembling with cold. He pulled the second blanket up from the foot of his bed, but even that didn’t do him much good. By the time Harry arrived about half an hour later, he was wrapped up like a burrito in his blankets, coughing up a lung.

“Alright?” asked Harry gently.

Louis just groaned.

“Don’t want to fight today then?”

Louis groaned again, louder, before breaking into a fresh bout of coughing.

“You want your medicine?”

Louis nodded pitifully, and Harry held out the small cup of pills and a plastic cup of water.

“Painkillers?” he asked as Louis extricated himself from his nest so he could take the water and medicine from him. Louis threw them both back and nodded again, pulling his blankets back up to his chin. Harry smiled gently, reaching over to press a button on the remote beside Louis’ pillow.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Louis could feel the moment the drugs hit him; he felt warm and comfortable and sleepy, and within a few moments, the raw feeling of his throat had subsided to a dull ache.

“Better?” asked Harry.

Louis hummed in agreement and burrowed further into his blankets.

“I’ll be back in a few, alright?”

“Hmm...” mumbled Louis, but he could already feel sleep overtaking him.

When he woke up a few hours later, his fever had broken, he had two extra blankets draped over him, and there was a cup of green jello on his nightstand.

***

Liam came to pick Louis up later the following evening, the day before his birthday. Part of him was relieved, excited that he wasn’t going to have to spend his birthday and Christmas in the hospital, but another, smaller but slightly worryingly clingy part of himself that he didn’t really like to think about was more than a little disappointed to be leaving Harry behind. He’d hoped to at least get a chance to say goodbye, maybe even get up the nerve to give him his number, but the nurse who had come in to check on him that morning was a skinny girl with long, light brown hair who gave him a knowing smile when he asked where Harry was and told him he had the day off. Louis had considered leaving his number anyways, but had eventually decided that would be weird, and that he’d just find Harry when he came back in two weeks for his checkup. Because that would be much less weird, obviously.

He was on his way out through the lobby, being pushed in a wheelchair by a surprisingly tolerant Liam and just starting to second guess his decision, when someone behind them started shouting.

“Oi! Wait up!”

Liam stopped, and Louis turned in his chair to see a harried looking nurse hurrying up behind them, a piece of folded paper and a to-go cup clutched in his hand. He had dark hair, hazel eyes, and what were undoubtedly the cheekbones of an angel and the eyelashes of a Vogue model.

“I was told to give you this,” said the nurse, shoving the cup into Louis’ hands before turning to Liam and holding out the paper. “And this is for you.” Liam unfolded it tentatively, and his face flushed pink.

“I- uh- I’m flattered, but I have a boyfriend.”

The nurse smiled. “I know. It’s for both of you.” He turned on his heel and walked away, leaving a gaping Liam and a very amused Louis in his wake.

“Nice,” said Louis.

Liam, still blushing, shoved the paper in his jacket pocket and started pushing the wheelchair again. “What did he give you then?”

Louis had almost forgotten the cup clutched in his hands. It smelled like yorkshire tea, and something was written on the side of it in loopy handwriting. He lifted it to look closer, and above what was unmistakably a phone number, there was a short note.

Fight me?  
xxH

Louis smiled. Maybe Liam would be getting a Christmas present this year after all.

“Nothing,” he said, cheeks warm, trying to hide the cup from Liam’s sight.

“Ooh, is that a phone number?” asked Liam, leaning over Louis’ shoulder, trying to see.

Then again, thought Louis, he needed a new pair of gloves himself too.


End file.
